Co‑optation and Elite Accommodation in Malaysian Politics

Abstract

It has long been recognized that the process of elite accommodation has been crucial to Malaysia's communal and overall political stability. As the events of 1969 showed, a concerted attempt to undermine the position of the ruling trans communal coalition threatened not only the primacy of the regime, but also overall communal and political stability. Without the adroit accommodation of most of the opposition parties which had challenged the regime at the 1969 general election ? a process which gave rise to the Barisan Nasional (BN or National Front) ? the reconstruction of the political system might never have been possible. The BN, representing a greatly expanded version of the original tripartite trans-communal Alliance which had ruled Malaysia since independence, is composed of several essentially communal political parties clustered around the undisputed leadership of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). In the case of the formation of the BN, the accommodation of opposition elites was achieved on a large scale through the device of formal coalitions. This process and its consequences for the overall political system has been the subject of academic investigation.1 However, less is known of the accommodation of indi vidual adversaries of the regime through the mechanism of co-optation and the significance of this process for Malaysian politics. Yet, as will be shown, co optation has frequently been used by the ruling party to maintain its own primacy, to debilitate opposition parties, and to help defuse serious political challenges. Co-optation involves the absorption into the regime of individual oppo nents in order to contain or eliminate both their motivation and capacity to oppose. Such absorption is usually brought about by both persuasion and the judicious use of inducements ? commonly in the form of an offer of a position at some level of actual or symbolic leadership or participation in the regime.2 Such absorption may be used as a means, not only of terminating the opposition of particular individuals, but also of exercising control over them as they are social ized into the values of the regime and grow accustomed to the fruits of their membership of the ruling group. The strategy of co-optation has several characteristics. Attempts are made to persuade opponents, by means of a variety of arguments, to desist from their opposition and to support the regime. Such persuasion will usually be reinforced with the offer of rewards or inducements and, in certain circumstances, by threats to remove existing privileges and benefits enjoyed by an opponent. Finally, the